Adriana's pov

Tuesday morning

I can't walk! My legs are freaking hurt from all of the running! I can barely stand.

If you didn't get it, I'm still trying to reach the auditorium, but thanks to my PE teacher, it's kinda impossible.

After many attempts of walking, I manged to get to the auditorium door, my legs are starting to feel better, well I hope they'll be fully healed in 2 minutes.

As per usual, I'm late, who's surprised? I'm not.

"Adriana Valentina Jones! You need to be here on time! We can't have you arrive late on the performance's day! I won't accept you to this class if you're late again!" My teacher scolds me.

Ha, like I care.

"Listen here ma'am, I wasn't intending on playing in this stupid performance of yours in the first place, if I had a choice I'd be laying in bed watching Netflix with a bag of Doritos in my hand, so we're gonna drop the act, and be real, so if you want to cast me out of the play, I would be more than grateful" I blurt out, what I'm impulsive and I don't think before talking, I HAVE AN ATTITUDE, YOU DON'T LIKE IT, YOU CAN LEAVE, I WON'T BE TAKING HATE FROM NO ONE.

After what I said, the auditorium fell into a deep silence, did I go too far this time? I think I did.

"You know what?" My teacher starts "I am done with your attitude young lady!, you don't want to play in the performance, well guess what? You ARE going to, and if you try to ditch, you will be expelled from this school, permanently.

"Listen you old hag, I don't know who the f**k you're trying to threaten, but spoiler alert, you don't do that with me, expel me from this school, I could care less." I smirk when I see her face looking pale.

Before she could say anything else, someone grabbed my forearm and walked me out of the auditorium, ugh it's Ash-, jerk face?

Jace's pov

That's it. Adriana is going way too far with this attitude of hers, at first, I admired her wild personality, but if it's gonna get her expelled then I need to stop this, fortunately, Ashton wasn't here to see this, he had to take care of stuff at work.

"Don't touch me you ass-hat!" She forcefully releases her hand from my grasp.

Instead of answering her, I took her arm again this time, squeezing it much tighter before dragging her to the janitor's closet.

I release her hand and say "You're gonna stop this now Adriana"

"Stop what?" She answers.

"This attitude of yours! You're gonna get expelled!" I yell.

Adriana's pov

"This attitude of yours! You're gonna get expelled!" He yells.

"Why do you care?!" I shout.

"If I don't do something about it, Ashton is going to have to" He creates an excuse.

I let out a bitter laugh before starting again "When are you gonna drop the 'Ashton excuses' huh? Do you think that I'm this clueless? I know that you like me jerk face, I wish I could say the same, but no no, you're just a bipolar b**ch who doesn't know what to say or when to say it" I grip his neck tightly but not enough to choke him "Stay out of my way, or I'll torture you" I mumble the last part.

"Oh really? And how are you going to do that?" He asks his eyes getting darker.

Mhm, I'm glad he asked that question.

I walk up to him and lean closer to him then turn to his ear biting his earlobe "I will torture you with myself, by teasing you" I lick his lip and he groans "By touching you" I trace random shapes on his shoulder "Playing hard to get" I bite him bottom lip and he grips my waist harder "Tho, the twist here, is that I'm impossible to get" I bite his earlobe again before leaving the janitor's closet.

That was so hot.

Jace's pov

F**k, I need a cold shower, Adriana just turned me on at school, she is so freaking hot, when she bit my lip and earlobe, when she touched my skin making it feel like it's on fire, she's right, this is torture, I better stay out of her way, or else I won't be able to handle myself.

Let's see how impossible she is to get.

Adriana's pov

After the little heated moment with jerk face I decided to go home, I'm not in the mood to be at school, and there's nothing better to do than ditch.

I made some homemade brownies, and now I'm knocking at Ashton's door.

Huh, he's not here?

I mentally shrug, and walk into his room, come to think of it, I haven't been in Ashton's room that much, feels weird to be in here.

Let's snoop around

I walk towards his nightstand and open his drawers, all he has are tissues, medicine.

I walk towards his closet and dig through his clothes, he might be hiding something in here.

As I was digging through his pants drawer, I felt something hard touching my hand, I took it out, and my hand trembled in fear.

Why does my brother have a gun in his drawers?!

Is it a real one tho? Yeah no I'm not stupid enough to try, besides it looks like a real gun.

I placed the gun back where it was, took the plate of brownies and left Ashton's room, what are you hiding from me Ashton?

At first I thought that it was a harmless secret he and jerk face were hiding! But now I see a gun!? IS ASHTON DANGEROUS?! SHOULD I BE AFRAID OF HIM?! Well that definitely scared me, but Ashton is my brother and I know that he would never do anything to harm me, it's gonna take me time to process what I saw, but it's possible I guess?

But what is scaring me the most is that I saw a gun in my brother's drawer, and that can't be his only secret, what could he be hiding more than this?! Bigger than this?! More dangerous than this?! Is he in danger?! Is he in some sort of gang, because I don't see why my brother would have a gun in his drawer, I hope that it's just a safety gun in case anyone broke into our house, because I'm confused, scared, and nervous about what I'm gonna find out soon.

If I only knew what I was dragging myself into.

After the little discovery I made, I decided to go to the flying biscuit cafe and then to my secret place, it has been awhile, I miss Maddie's grandma, and I miss my secret place.

Once I got to the diner, the first thing I did was go to my usual spot, thankfully no one was sitting there.

A new waitress came up to me and asked what I'd like to eat, I gave her my order and she went back to the kitchen, I wonder if Maddie's grandma is here.

As I was scrolling through my phone, I heard someone call my name, I furrow my eyebrows and turn around, a smile makes it way onto my face when I see Maddie's grandma walking towards me with my food in her hands.

"Hello dear" She greets me with a huge smile on her face.

"I missed you so much ma'am" I waste no time to hug her.

"I missed you too darling, how have you been, I haven't seen you in a long time" She answers.

I spent the rest of the day with Maddie's grandma, telling her everything that has happened since I last saw her.

Few hours later it was already dark outside, she bids me goodbye and I leave with a smile plastered on my face. I jump into my car and go to my secret place, I take my phone out from my back pocket to check the time and I see that it's already 7 PM.

I know that Ashton is gonna keep on calling me, so I turned my phone off. After walking for 5 minutes through the bushes and trees, I finally see my secret place.

"I missed coming here" I mumble to myself as I sit down on a rock next to the fountain, even though it's dark outside, it's still peaceful to be here.

Ashton's pov

Where is she????????

I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CALL MY SISTER ALL DAY IT'S 7:30 AND IT'S DARK OUTSIDE, TO TOP IT ALL OFF, ADRIANA HASN'T BEEN ANSWERING HER 70 MISSED CALLS!

"Calm down Ash, I'm sure Adriana is fine" Jace reassures me.

"How can you not be freaking out about this?! From what I know you're madly in love with her tho you don't look like you care!" I snap.

"Of course I care Ashton! But you know that Adriana is responsible of herself, you know that she wouldn't do anything stupid, she's very smart, but the thing is I trust her but you don't, you're acting like she can't take care of herself tho she proved you wrong, stop acting like you should be responsible of her, you're both the same age, you need to trust her Ashton" Jace says before leaving my room.

Ouch? Yea that did hurt, because what he said was right, I told Adriana that I was gonna give her space, but I'm not keeping my word, I need to stop worrying, she's probably out at the flying cafe place, she'll come back soon, I just need to turn my phone off and wait.

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"Hey I'm home!" I hear the voice who has made me piss my pants few times today, coming from the living room.

I run out of the kitchen and tackle Adriana to the floor while hugging her till the point where she can't breathe.

"Ash...I-...breathe" She breathes out and I let go of her.

"You got me so worried Adriana!" I scold at her.

"Yeah I've noticed from your 70 missed calls" She rolls her eyes.

"But at some point I realized that I wasn't giving you enough space so I stopped" I raise my hands up in surrender.

"Yeah, well thank you for realizing that, I'm going to sleep now, okay?" She tells me.

"Goodnight baby sis" I say amusingly.

"We're the same age Ashton, you're older of 3 minutes!" She yells her voice become muffled and inaudible with every step she takes to her room.

"Those three minutes matter anyway!" I shout back with a smile tugging at my face.

I go back to the kitchen and make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, then go to my room to see Jace still there, sitting on my bed with his laptop resting on his lap, he must be very focused on his work since he did not notice my presence.

I clear my throat making him look up from his laptop "I thought you left earlier"

"I was going to, but I forgot that I left my laptop here so I decided to stay over and work for awhile" He clarifies.

"Yeah no problem, wanna sleep over then?" I ask him.

"Thanks man, but I still got work to do at the warehouse, I need to check the shipments and their whereabouts" He declines my offer.

"Want me to come with you?" I ask again.

"You can't leave Adriana alone Ash, it's alright really" He reassures me before leaving.

Well I guess I can go to sleep now.

Adriana's pov

The next morning (Wednesday)

Weirdly today I got up at 7 AM, it's not that early considering that I usually wake up at 6 or 5, that's why I used the keyword weirdly, huh guess I was really tired yesterday and I slept overnight without waking up to drink or anything.

I jumped out of bed and lazily walked to my bathroom without looking ahead of me making me bump into the wall and fall to the floor, ouch.

I quickly got up, this time being much more careful, I took my time doing my makeup and choosing my outfit, girls always remember, make yourself pretty for you, not for anyone else.

I changed into a white crop top and a gray cardigan and blue jeans, I looked at myself through the mirror and man I look beautiful as always.

I gathered my stuff and put them in my school bag before running down the stairs, it's oddly quiet for a school morning.

"Ashton?" I yell his name but get no answer.

I walk inside the kitchen and see a note on the fridge, I had to do something important Adriana I won't be going to school today, don't worry about me, oh and Kayla told me to tell you that she can't pick you up today so I asked Jace to do so, don't be mad at me, it could be an opportunity to fix everything, see you tonight, Ashton.

"Great just f-ing great!" I mumble under my breath frustrated.

I don't want to see jerk face, but I guess that I wasn't given any choice.

I was brought back to reality by someone knocking on the front door, great he's here, note the freaking sarcasm.

I opened the door and there he was leaning against the door frame, I didn't spare him a glance instead I rolled my eyes and started walking towards his car, and before you get mad at me and say that I should be thanking him for giving me a ride, I didn't want this in the first place, so I don't see why I should be thanking him, I should've walked to school.

"You can at least say thank you for the ride" He says before starting the car.

"I didn't ask to be in this car with you, so there's nothing to thank you for" I spat.

He didn't say anything after this and neither did I.

Let's just get over with today.